


Ice

by Burgie



Series: Katja Joins Team Good AU [31]
Category: Star Stable Online
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2016-08-23
Packaged: 2018-08-10 13:50:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7847554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katja finds out about Jessica's pregnancy. Takes place before SSO.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ice

Katja was worried about her sister. Jess was sick, but she never got sick. Lately, though, she’d been sleeping a lot and then getting up only to throw up. Katja suspected what was going on, but maybe she was jumping to conclusions. After all, Jessica didn’t have anyone. Not like the rest of them did.

She finally caught Jess outside the bathroom. When Jess saw her, she got even paler.

“Hey, are you sick?” asked Katja. 

“Um, yeah,” said Jess. “Just some, uh… food poisoning. Ate a bad whale carcass.”

“Jess, I’m not stupid,” said Katja. “Out of everyone, I know what’s going on.” It was time to put her theory to the test and hope, for her sanity, that she was wrong. “You’re pregnant, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” said Jess, and sighed, closing her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“I knew it,” said Katja. “When will you leave?”

“What?” asked Jess. “What do you mean?”

“A pregnant siren is easy prey,” said Katja. “And you saw what happened to me. You can’t have a kid here. Garnok will just turn it into a monster.”

“I’m sorry,” said Jess again, tears in her eyes. “I didn’t think about how this would affect you.”

“Liar,” said Katja, and it was almost a yell. “You’ve been avoiding me for the past few weeks, ever since you got sick. You were the one who brought me back to life when I was grieving, you saw how it affected me, and yet you went and did this anyway.” But she kept her voice low, protecting her even as she yelled at her.

“Oh, get over it,” Jess hissed at her. “That was centuries ago and I wanted to have a child with this wonderful man. I know the contraceptive song, and I know what I’m doing. I’d sure appreciate your help if it’s not too damaging for you.”

Darkness swirled around Katja and she disappeared, leaving nothing but teardrops on the metal floor.

Those same teardrops froze in the place where Katja ended up. She dropped to her knees and curled into a ball, sobbing. The air around her was silent except for the rumbling of thunder, the snow and mist such a pure white as to render her invisible.

Damn her. Damn Jess for knowing that it’d hurt her and going ahead with it anyway. Hadn’t seeing her plight done anything? She knew the risks, and yet she went and did it anyway. Katja had finally gotten out of the fog of hopelessness and despair, enough so that she didn’t want to spend her days in Pandoria, and now she was hit with this.

Rage overtook her, and Katja stood up with a growl. She’d made much of this place, including the ice ceiling that kept out the worst of the cold. Katja stared up at it, her hand poised to fire destructive magic. But then she reconsidered, and turned her attention instead to the ground. Her magic sliced downwards, cutting into the ground and unleashing great jets of water that froze instantly. Katja shaped them as they froze, making a claw of both her hand and the ice. More water was ripped out of the ground, and she made it into more claws. She went into a frenzy, shaping water from deep underground into claws until a new part of the landscape took shape.

At last, her magic spent, Katja lowered her hand and looked at her handiwork, panting. Her throat was hoarse from screaming and roaring, and she knew that she must have looked ridiculous. A laugh bubbled out of her, and it was funny that she’d imagined these claws ripping into Garnok as punishment for killing her son and almost-wife. They were made of ice, although it was thick, so they couldn’t really do any damage. At least, not to a monster the size of Garnok. Jess would do more damage alone if he got his tentacles on her precious child or human mate.

Katja calmed down, thinking of her sister. She breathed deeply, trying to regain focus. At least the frozen air helped her to regain clarity. The fog of anger was lifting quickly, her rage cooled by the cooler temperature. And she knew what she had to do.

Jess was in her bedroom, which wasn’t surprising. Katja knocked on the door.

“Hey, it’s me,” said Katja. “I’m calm now. I just wanna talk to you. And apologise.”

“Why apologise?” asked Jess, opening the door. Her eyes were red from crying. “You had every right to react like that. You’re obviously not ready to help me.”

“No, I… you just caught me off-guard, that’s all,” said Katja. “Look, Jess, I’m happy for you. You decided to have a baby, and that’s wonderful. Just please be careful so you don’t go through what I went though. I’ll come check up on you, wherever you are, whenever you want.”

“Thank you,” said Jess. “I really appreciate your support. I know that this must be really hard for you.”

“I’m not gonna lie, Jess, this is really hard for me,” said Katja, blinking back tears. “But I’ll be there for you. You shouldn’t have to miss out on happiness just because of what happened to me. Being a mother is a wonderful thing.”

“It already feels wonderful,” said Jess. “I mean, the morning sickness sucks, but…” She put her hand on her still-flat belly and grinned.

“I know,” said Katja. “This kid will get the best darn aunt ever.” She grinned at her sister, and Jess grinned back and hugged her.

“And you’re sure that it’s not too much?” asked Jess. “You’re still healing, I can see that.”

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just had to cool off,” said Katja, and laughed. Nobody else knew about her secret place. “You should go to your mate now, or whatever title you’re giving it. I’ll come visit you whenever you need me.”

“Okay. As far as anyone else knows, I’m going to another dimension where I rule,” said Jess.

“Okay,” said Katja, nodding. “I can go with that.”

“Good.” Jess went back into her room to pack, feeling a lot happier. Katja, on the other hand, was still conflicted. She was happy for her sister, sure, and excited about being an aunt and helping Jess through her pregnancy and after the child was born. But she also missed her own son, and she was definitely jealous that now Garnok was keeping an extra eye on her so that she couldn’t have another child even if she wanted to. The magic of the Kallters kept him from seeing her in the valley, though. But that was no place to raise a child.

When Jessica finally left, they both knew that Katja had been crying again. But neither of them said anything more than ‘goodbye’.


End file.
